


The Things She Carried

by TheProperLexicon



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 18:53:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10927917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheProperLexicon/pseuds/TheProperLexicon
Summary: **MAJOR SPOILERS FOR A YEAR IN THE LIFE**Can what seems like the worst thing that could have happened actually be the thing that brings Rory true happiness?Post AYITL.





	The Things She Carried

Leaves tumbled down the street, dancing in the blustery breeze that blew through the space between the quaint, picturesque buildings that she thought she had loved from a distance for so many years. Her life had been crazy, she supposed. No less than a few months ago, she realized. She flexed her fingers around her piping hot Luke’s cup, feeling the tingle of the cold as she lifted them away from the paper sleeve. She lifted it to her lips to take a sip, grateful for the heat, and the taste that filled her. She had her suspicions that Luke had slipped her decaf again, but she had been too tired to argue that Lorelei had drank coffee the entire time she was pregnant with her. She had been up all night with _morning sickness_ and quite frankly she did not really want the caffeine. She wanted to nap.

But, instead of being home, in her little twin sized bed from her childhood, she was sitting on the step of the gazebo. Waiting. She watched as Taylor flipped the sign in the door of the grocery, peering out at the autumn morning. He caught her eye and waved jovially. She half waved back, a smile in place. He did not know yet, no one did. No one but Lorelei and Luke, and her. And him. He knew, she reminded herself. Of course, he knew. He had been told first. He knew almost as soon as she had. She had called him, sobbing, not caring if she was waking him. Not knowing who was with him. He had been alone, thank heavens. Because she had been a mess, a disaster.

She had wanted to keep her cool, but she couldn’t. She had wanted to be as calm and collected as Lorelei would be. He had been the one to remind her that Lorelei was never calm and collected. He had been the one to remind her that neither had she. He had been the one to remind her that it was one of the things that he loved about her. That she was a beautiful, terrible mess. And then he had said that he would come to wherever she was. Over the months, he had given her the strength and resolve to tell Lorelei. And now he was on his way here, to tell her of his part in it.

With Taylor disappeared back inside the store, away from the window, Rory’s gaze drifted. It fell to the ice cream shop, then Luke’s, and around to Miss Patty’s. That’s when she saw it. His car was coming into the square. She felt her heart thunder in her chest, her pulse skipping a beat. It did then whenever she saw him, no matter if it had been a week, a few days, or a few hours.

The car pulled to a stop just past Luke’s and the driver’s side door open. He swung himself out, all tall, lean grace, and slammed the door shut. He glanced left and right before crossing the street, having caught sight of her as he drove past. She lifted a hand to wave as he approached, he did the same. Once he had reached the step he sank down one level before her, leaning back on an elbow to gaze up at her. “Hey,” he greeted softly, his eyes drifting to the coffee. “Getting your fix, I see?”

She scoffed, sniffing airily. “I have reason to believe this is decaf.”

He snorted, rolling his eyes to the storefront of the diner. “I see your mom told Luke,” he chuckled.

“You mean that fascist?” Rory grumbled, pulling back the lid to glare at her caffeine-free java. “What makes you think that?”

“Well, how’d they take it?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.

She hitched a shoulder. “Mom asked me if I wanted ice cream,” she answered.

“Wait, didn’t you tell her at, like, 5 in the morning?” Rory nodded, a half smile growing. She sipped the coffee. “Awesome.” They sat in silence for a moment, looking around the empty town square. It was strange for her, she realized. He had always come to her grandmother’s out in Hartford, or she had gone to his place in the city when he was there. She had not seen him in this setting in so long that it was almost new. Almost.

“What do you want to do?” she asked, so softly that she was worried he had not heard her.

But his gaze shifted up to hers and that smile dawned, brightening the morning around them. “Let’s go tell them,” he said, pushing himself up with his hands. He brushed them on his jeans before reaching out to offer one to her. She let her pull him up, stepping dangerously close to him in the broad daylight of the town square. He let her stand there for a long moment before stepping back, that smile still in place. He bowed his head grandly, gesturing for her to go ahead of him. Rory started off toward Luke’s, where she would text her mother to meet her in a moment.

Before they could cross the street, Miss Patty’s barn door slid open to reveal the woman herself. Her round face lit up as she saw them and she lifted a hand to wave. “Hello Rory, dear! Good to see you! And Jess! Hello! Home for a visit?”

Jess beamed beside Rory, his dark hair falling in his face as he nodded. “Yes, ma’am, Miss Patty! Hopefully an extended one!” Miss Patty nodded happily, her smile brightening. To Rory, Jess said softly, “Once Luke and Lorelei know, maybe we can just tell her.” Rory fought the urge to giggle as she waved her farewell to Miss Patty. The whole town would know before lunch.

“Maybe we will,” she answered, smirking.

 

There was silence in the back room of Luke’s. Neither Lorelei or Luke had said a word when Jess had told her why he was there. Neither of them had looked at Rory for her response either. Of course, she knew why he was here. But she suspected that neither of them had seen it coming a mile away.

“But…” Lorelei stammered before falling silent, a feat that seemed nearly as impossible as Rory having down her entire decaf coffee.

Luke took up the thought as though they were of a single mind. “You two haven’t seen each other in… in… months? Years? How… How long has it…”

Rory stepped forward, her voice small and timid, much to her chagrin. “After he suggested that I write my story, our story, I… I didn’t know where to start. I had just… I called him. He came to the house in Hartford.” She let the sentence trail off, glancing to Lorelei.

“Ok, stop,” she said, waving a hand. Rory fell silent. “Kid, listen,” she started again, her gaze shifting to Jess before moving back to her. “Have you guys talked this out? Like, where the kid is going to live? What you’re going to do for work? Who’s going to raise it?” Rory’s eyes widened. “Because you need to. You’re currently making a human. And before, when I thought it was just you, alone, I was ready to be the other part of this. But you’ve got another part of this already, and…” she fell quiet for a moment before she kept talking. “And you two need to get this figured out. Together.” She turned and looked to Luke, who stood beside her. “Luke and I are here and we love you. We do. But this isn’t our discussion.” Luke’s jaw dropped. “So, thank you for telling us. Now, I’ll see you for dinner, yes?”

“Yes,” Rory answered immediately, out of habit.

“Awesome. Jess, you’re welcome too,” she added, motioning to him. “And I can make up the couch if you need me to. Or, I guess we try to make up a cot in Rory’s room.”

“Couch is fine, Lorelei,” he answered. “Thank you.” Lorelei nodded once, then opened her mouth as though to say something else. She changed her mind at the last moment, reached out and grasped Luke’s hand, pulling him out of the storage room.

The moment they stepped through the door and it closed behind them, she turned to face Luke and opened her mouth as though to scream. Luke clamped his hand over her mouth, placed his other hand in hers and yanked her up the stairs to the old office door. Behind it was nothing but dusty storage, and it was here that he brought her. He closed to door firmly behind them and dropped his hand. “Ok, go,” he said, stepping back and folding his arms over his barrel chest.

“Can you _believe_ this, Luke?” she stormed, flinging her hands up. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this? Are they even compatible? I mean, they tried this once! And it FAILED, spectacularly, I might add!” She raged around in a little circle, spouting similar arguments at her incoherent pace.

When he had let her fume around for an approved amount of time he reached out with both hands and captured her shoulders, spinning her to face him. “Breathe, Lorelei,” he said. She glared, trying to keep talking. “Nope. Breathe.” She curled her lip but she took her deep breath, inhaling through her nose and exhaling through her mouth like she had practiced. “Now that you’ve had your tantrum,” he began.

“Tant-”

“Let’s talk about this logically,” he continued as though she had not interrupted him. “Rory is thirty-two,” he pointed out. “She is a grown adult, with bills and responsibilities. She has been running her own life for a while now. And despite the fact that she is back under your roof, she’s been doing ok. Jess is also doing extraordinary. He is a top agent at a national publishing company, he’s written several novels. He’s different than the angry, emotional wreck of a kid that crashed in my apartment for a summer or two. You know it, I know it. If there’s two people who have gotten their lives together out of the weirdness that was dealt them better than those two people, I dare you to show me.”

“Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan,” Lorelei argued sullenly.

“Oh yeah, they’ve got it together,” Luke snarked back. “Come on, Lorelei. This isn’t your fight, and you know it.”

“But where are they going to live?” she demanded. “New York? Hartford? They don’t own anything!”

“Neither did you,” Luke replied. “You raised Rory in a gardening shed for years.” Lorelei scuffed her shoe along the wooden floor of the storage space, drawing a line in the dust. “Give them some time to figure it out, like you told them to. See what they come up with. And if that doesn’t meet your expectations, then you can argue with them.” He waited a beat, eyeing her for a reaction, before adding, “Like Emily would.”

Her eyes widened and she tensed up. “How dare you!” she snapped even as Luke started to laugh. Lorelei felt her lips twisting up in a burst of laughter as well. “You jerk!” she yelled, swatting him lightly on the arm. “I’ll get you for that!”

 Luke, still laughing, yanked open the door and fled downstairs. The back room was empty of Rory and Jess, and he retreated to the kitchen to hide from a chuckling Lorelei as she yelled over her shoulder that she was going to trash the kitchen before he got home. He jokingly called after her that it wouldn’t be a new development and was treated to a raspberry blown by his wife through the glass of the door as it slammed behind her.

 

They did not have a place, Rory realized as they wandered through town. Maybe it had once been the gazebo, back when they were teenagers. But so much had happened other places, New York, Hartford, the old Dragonfly, Luke’s. They did not fit any one place anymore. But that did not change how they fit together, she knew. Even as they walked a small distance apart, not touching in the cool fall air, there was a connection. There was a comfort level that she never felt with anyone. Not even Logan. She did not always have to speak, sometimes she would share a glance with Jess and he would answer her unasked question.

This was one of those moments. She wanted to talk, but she did not know how to start the conversation, so they looped the square. When they had gotten to exactly the opposite side from Luke’s, Jess answered the question she had not known she wanted to ask.

“I don’t want to live in Hartford,” he breathed.

She exhaled, relief rushing from her. “Me neither,” she offered. He exhaled too, the same relief on his face. “I don’t mind New York, though,” she said softly.

He bobbed his head from side to side, agreeing but not agreeing. “It’s a great city,” he offered. “Full of stuff to do, things to see. The kid wouldn’t ever be bored.” She nodded, her heart racing. She did not want to say the thing she was thinking, and she did not meet his eyes out of fear that he would see it. But, he sensed it anyway. “But I don’t think that’s the life we want for our kid, is it?”

The way he said it, _our kid_ , sparked tears in her eyes and she had to focus on blinking them back for a moment. She shook her head slowly. “Jess,” she whispered, lifting her head when she had her emotions under control. “Do you think you could live in Stars Hollow?” She paused for a moment, but pressed on before he could even reply. “I know the commute sucks, and I know this town isn’t your style, and I want you to be happy, too. But I just, I want… I can’t…”

“You can’t imagine a child of yours growing up away from this place?” he whispered, stopping and stepping in front of her. His hands came up to her shoulders and she felt his warmth through the soft autumn jacket she wore. She nodded, feeling those traitorous tears burning at the corners of her eyes again. “Me neither, Rory.” Her eyes widened. “This place…” Now it was his turn to trail off as he glanced around the square. “This place changed my life.” One tear spilled down her cheek, cool in the breeze. “Everything good, it started here. Luke, my writing, you. It’s all from here.” His gaze came back to her face and he lifted his hand to brush the tear away with his thumb. “I can’t imagine not raising a family here, either.”

“You mean it?” Rory whispered. “You’re not just saying that because I’m crying in the middle of the sidewalk?”

Jess chuckled low, under his breath. “I mean, I’m not going to say that I can’t stand to see you cry, but I will say that if you ever want something from me, that’s the way to do it.” She snorted, trying to force the tears to stop. “But no, I mean it. I want this place.” He glanced around again, his gaze over her head. “God help me, I want this creepy, Stepford-style existence, with it’s weird picket fences, and its random _town gazebo_. And the festivals, sweet Jesus, why are there so many festivals?” Rory snorted again. “And that,” he joked, motioning to her, indicating the noise she had made. “That’s sexy. How can I say no to a woman who can make a noise like that?”

Rory lifted her chin into the air and said haughtily, “If you think that’s sexy, you should hear me scarf down an entire box of Oreos.”

Jess nodded, his bottom lip jutting out as he considered it. “Pretty sure I have, kiddo.”

Feigning shock, Rory reached out and swatted at his arm playfully. “Don’t be rude!” she chided. “And don’t call me kiddo, kiddo.”

“Ok, then. Maybe I’ll call you… Roar-roar.”

“Only if you wanna die,” she quickly interjected. “Try again.”

“Babyface?”

“Nope.”

“Puddin’ pop?”

“You’re sleeping on the porch.”

“Baby mama.”

“I’ll have mom cook for you first.”

“Beautiful.”

She paused, gazing up at him, evaluating what he said. “I…” She had no response.

“Perfect,” Jess whispered. “Beautiful, it is.” Then he bent and kissed her lightly on the lips, in full view of the whole town square. She gave herself a moment to panic about the gears of the rumor mill as they started to churn, then she slipped her arms around his shoulders and let him pull her close. The rumor mill would soon have more fodder than a kiss. She and Jess were moving to Stars Hollow, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think of this concept! I'm excited to hear from both sides of the shipping war. How does my AU play into the concepts presented canonically? What concerns do you have?
> 
> And more importantly, what would you like to see happen in the coming chapters?
> 
> _____  
> Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer is one of the 300+ books referenced in the seven seasons of Gilmore Girls.


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